Volkswagen said on Wednesday it would introduce two models this year in India and build 110,000 cars annually in the country after its new Indian plant starts up next year.
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“We will get our Jetta to the Indian market this summer while the luxury Phaeton will also be introduced this year,” Volkswagen India president Joerg Mueller told Agence France Press (AFP) on the eve of India’s biggest car show starting in Delhi on Thursday.
Volkswagen said it also aimed to introduce a small car in India in 2010 based on its Polo hatchback but gave no pricing details.
AFP noted that Volkswagen’s new 110,000-unit manufacturing plant in Chakan near Pune in western India is expected to be operational by 2009 and will assemble the Polo-based model and the Skoda Fabia which are slated for introduction in 2010.
VW already sells the Passat sedan – its first locally-assembled model – and Touareg SUV in India, where car market sales are forecast to nearly double to 2m units by 2010.
According to AFP, the Jetta will be assembled at Volkswagen’s Skoda unit at Aurangabad in the western state of Maharashtra, which produces about 25,000 Skodas annually for the Indian market, while the Phaeton will be imported.
Volkswagen, which has identified India as “a key market for strategic growth,” said it was also considering introducing its new Tiguan compact SUV there, AFP added.
Volkswagen, which has just three dealers now, is planning to expand the network to 10 this year, Mueller told the news agency.
